1851 Half Cent - You Vs. Old ANACS

Au-55

I agree with SuperDave at AU-53

My first impression was AU-55.

Nice!

Well, everyone agreed it's an AU, with grades about evenly distributed among AU50, AU53, and AU55.

This coin is much prettier in hand than in my photos, with a very smooth, lustrous Kraft caramel brown color. It does, as TJsCoins notes, have a weak strike - note the mushy letters in LIBERTY. There is very little real wear apparent.

It will be interesting to see if NGC marks down for the strike. I'll post results when I get them.

In the meantime, TJsCoins was spot-on. The old ANACS graders gave it:

As I mentioned when posting this thread long ago, I was very interested to see whether the reputation old ANACS has for conservative grading was warranted.

For this 1851 Half Cent, NGC agrees with old ANACS that it grades an AU58. Given the slight wear, the coin has to be on the AU scale, and it is nice to see that both services confirm that it's at the top of that scale. So at the very least, it appears that ANACS did not overgrade.

I was thinking AU55 but have 0 knowledge of the set for whatever that's worth.

Thanks, everyone.

I agree with Bryan1315. AU58 is my favorite grade, especially for 19th century coins. In one of his grading videos, Rick Snow points out that AU58 is essentially AU55 with "something special," while MS60/61 is MS63 with a problem.

That really clicked for me. Plus, I love the sense of history of a circulated coin. So in my Half Cent collection, I aim for the highest circulated grade I can afford, with (obviously) a preference for AU58.

Interestingly, this is giving me a bit of a problem right now. (Well, it's a good kind of problem.) As you might have seen on another grading thread, I sent in an 1855 Half Cent, formerly graded AU58, and it came back MS62! Now it doesn't fit in my collection!